Finviz and TradingView are the two tools that come up in almost every discussion about stock screening. They both have free tiers. They both have large audiences. They're often recommended side by side: "Use Finviz to screen, TradingView to chart."
But that pairing reveals something: they're not actually competing for the same use case. Understanding what each tool does well — and where each one fails — will save you from building a workflow around the wrong one.
What they each do
Finviz is fundamentally a screener. It's designed around a table of stocks, filterable by 67 criteria, with a heatmap view for market-wide orientation. The product is built around the question: "Which stocks match my criteria right now?"
TradingView is fundamentally a charting platform. The screener is a feature added to a tool built around charts, indicators, and Pine Script. It answers a different question: "What is this stock doing technically, and how does it compare to others?"
The reason they're often used together is that they cover each other's weaknesses. Finviz is better at rapid multi-criteria screening; TradingView is better at everything that comes after you've found a candidate.
Coverage: where TradingView wins clearly
This is the biggest functional difference.
Finviz covers approximately 8,000–10,000 stocks, essentially limited to US-listed equities. European exchange listings — native stocks on XETRA, Euronext, BME, Borsa Italiana, the Nordic exchanges — are largely absent. You'll find US ADRs for major European companies, but not the stocks themselves as traded in their home markets.
TradingView covers roughly 60,000+ equities across global exchanges. If you invest in European, Asian, or emerging market stocks, TradingView's screener reaches them. The free tier limits how many filters you can apply simultaneously; paid tiers remove that restriction.
For any investor with exposure outside the US, this isn't a minor difference. It determines whether the tool is useful at all for your investment universe.
Filters: Finviz is denser, TradingView is broader
Finviz offers 67 filters across fundamental, technical, and descriptive criteria. The fundamentals are solid: P/E, P/B, EV/EBITDA, revenue, margins, debt, short float, dividend yield. Technical filters cover price performance, RSI, volume, and common patterns. The filters apply instantly as you change them.
TradingView offers 220+ filters. Beyond the standard fundamentals, it includes custom metric combinations, sector classification, analyst ratings, and technical conditions that Finviz doesn't support. The trade-off is that TradingView's screener takes more setup to get useful results. Finviz's is immediately intuitive.
For basic screening, Finviz's 67 filters cover 90% of common workflows. For advanced quantitative screening, TradingView's range is significantly larger.
Speed: Finviz wins
This is one of Finviz's defining characteristics. The screener updates results in real time as you change filters. The heatmap loads fast. Navigation is instant.
TradingView's screener is slower — noticeably so on the free tier. Results don't update as fluidly when adjusting filters. For investors who run multiple screen variations quickly to test a hypothesis, Finviz's speed is a meaningful advantage.
Charts: TradingView wins, not close
TradingView's charting is best-in-class. 400+ built-in indicators, full customization, Pine Script for custom strategies and indicators, multi-timeframe comparison, drawing tools. It has set the standard for what web-based charting should look like.
Finviz's charts are static and uninteractive. You can see a price chart with a few common overlays. You cannot draw, run scripts, annotate, or do anything with them other than look. They're adequate for orientation; they're not useful for technical analysis.
If you're a chart-driven investor, TradingView is the only serious option between the two.
Fundamentals depth: both are shallow for serious research
This is a criticism that applies to both tools:
Neither Finviz nor TradingView's screener is designed for deep fundamental research. You won't find multi-year trend data, earnings transcript access, or detailed financial statement analysis in either tool's screener interface. Both are designed to surface candidates, not to do the research.
Finviz shows last year's metrics. TradingView shows current metrics. Neither gives you the 5–10 year financial history a value investor typically wants before making a decision.
For that layer, you need a separate tool — which is where the fragmented workflow begins.
Pricing
Finviz:
- Free: 67 filters, 15–20 minute delayed data
- Elite: $39.99/month or ~$300/year — adds real-time data, backtesting, and unlimited saved screens
TradingView:
- Free: Limited to 2 filters at once in the screener, delayed data for most exchanges
- Essential: $14.95/month — removes most screener limits
- Plus: $29.95/month — adds more alerts and layout slots
- Premium: $59.95/month — full feature access
For screener-specific use, TradingView's Essential tier ($14.95/month) is more cost-effective than Finviz Elite ($39.99/month) once you factor in TradingView's global coverage and charting.
Who should use which
Use Finviz if:
- You invest primarily in US stocks
- You want the fastest, most intuitive screener with zero learning curve
- You use a separate charting tool already and don't need them to be the same
- The free tier fits your workflow (end-of-day, not intraday)
Use TradingView if:
- You invest in European, Asian, or other non-US markets
- Charts and technical analysis are part of your screening process
- You need more than 67 filters
- You want a single tool that covers screening and charting
Use both if:
- You invest in US stocks but want better charts (the most common combination)
What neither covers well: European stocks
Both tools have weaknesses when it comes to European markets. Finviz is effectively absent. TradingView covers European exchanges but its fundamental data depth for European stocks is inconsistent — particularly for small and mid caps on secondary exchanges like Euronext Growth, AIM Italia, First North, or GPW's NewConnect.
European investors who want a Finviz-style experience — fast, fundamental-filter-driven, dense — applied to European markets face a gap that neither of these tools fully fills. Tools like ChartMill (22,500+ US and European stocks) and ScreenerHero (17,000+ stocks across the US, Canada, and European markets including XETRA, Euronext Paris, BME, and Borsa Italiana) have emerged to address this.
The bottom line: Finviz and TradingView are both good tools that serve different purposes and investor profiles. The question isn't which one is better — it's which one is better for your specific workflow.